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CIVIL  SERVICE./ 


REPORT  OF  A  SPECIAL  COMMITTEE 


OF  THE 


National  Civil  Service  Reform  League 


1907 


Withdrawals  from  the  Civil  Service. 


REPORT  OF  A  SPECIAL  COMMITTEE  OF  THE  NATIONAL  CIVIL 

SERVICE  REFORM  LEAGUE. 


Although  the  resolution  under  which  your  committee 
was  appointed  constituted  it,  in  general  terms,  a  commit¬ 
tee  on  withdrawals  from  the  civil  service,  your  committee 
has  thought  it  more  profitable,  in  view  of  the  memoranda 
which  led  to  its  creation,  to  confine  their  attention  to  cer¬ 
tain  special  aspects  of  the  subject  intrusted  to  their 
charge.  They  have  accordingly  kept  before  them,  as  the 
object  of  their  inquiry,  the  difficulty  in  obtaining  em¬ 
ployees  from  the  eligible  lists  of  the  Civil  Service  Com¬ 
mission,  and  the  corresponding  difficulty  in  retaining  the 
best  of  them  so  appointed.  In  endeavoring  to  find  a 
method  of  treatment  they  have  imposed  a  further  limita¬ 
tion  upon  themselves.  Since  it  is  probably  true  that  the 
same  reasons  which  render  selections  difficult  also  render 
retention  difficult,  we  have  thought  it  expedient  to  ap¬ 
proach  the  question  from  the  point  of  view  of  appoint¬ 
ments  rather  than  withdrawal.  Statistics  as  to  with¬ 
drawals,  being  indiscriminately  mingled  with  the  statistics 
as  to  other  separations,  do  not  readily  lend  themselves  to 
the  study  of  the  particular  problem  in  hand.  The  sta¬ 
tistics  as  to  selections  and  refusals,  however,  show  plainly 
the  reluctance  with  which  positions  in  the  civil  service  are 
accepted. 

Through  the  courtesy  of  Mr.  John  T.  Doyle,  the  effi¬ 
cient  Secretary  of  the  Civil  Service  Commission,  we  have 
been  able  to  obtain  two  exceedingly  valuable  tables: 

1.  A  table  showing  generally  the  percentage  of 
declinations  in  all  the  Departments  at  Washington. 

2.  A  more  detailed  table,  showing  by  grade  of  salary 
and  character  of  employment  the  selections  and  declina¬ 
tions,  in  both  the  departmental  and  field  service,  in  two 


2 


typical  departments,  that  is  to  say,  the  Interior  Depart¬ 
ment  and  the  Navy  Department. 

From  this  table  we  find  at  the  outset  that  the  percent¬ 
age  of  declinations  for  all  departments,  during  the  fiscal 
year  ended  June  30,  1906,  was  28.96%.  This  is  slightly 
more  than  the  percentage  of  withdrawals,  25%.  The 
percentage  of  declinations  for  places  below  $900  is 
30.23%;  of  those  of  $900  and  over  it  is  26.51%.  When 
the  figures,  however,  are  considered  by  departments  they 
seem  to  be  more  significant,  for  we  find  that  the  percent¬ 
age  of  declinations  run  from  nothing  in  the  Department 
of  State,  where  there  were  but  two  certifications  during 
the  year,  to  53.57%  in  the  Smithsonian  Institution.  For 
the  purpose  of  making  deductions  likely  to  have  validity 
for  the  whole  service  these  extreme  cases  should  be  ex¬ 
cluded,  the  high  percentage  of  declinations  in  the  Smith¬ 
sonian  Institution,  for  example,  being  due  to  the  fact  that 
most  of  those  selected  were  scientific  men  engaged  in 
teaching  under  contract  and  so  unable  to  report  in  season. 
Certain  special  local  circumstances  require  the  elimination 
also  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission.  Special 
cases  being  eliminated,  we  find  that  the  percentage  of 
declinations  ranges  from  17.22%  in  the  Treasury  to 
49.63%  in  the  War  Department. 

Next  to  the  War  Department  comes  the  Navy  De¬ 
partment  with  a  percentage  of  48.65%.  The  Interior  De¬ 
partment,  with  31.67%,  lies  midway  between  the  Navy 
Department  and  the  lowest  of  all  the  great  departments, 
the  Agricultural,  with  22.88%.  Anything  but  the  most 
general  conclusions,  however,  based  upon  these  general 
averages  for  all  salaries  and  all  classes  of  work,  would 
likely  to  be  misleading.  If  we  proceed  then  to  compare 
the  declinations  of  places  below  $900,  with  the  declina¬ 
tions  of  that  grade  and  above,  the  figures  become  some¬ 
what  more  instructive.  In  the  Treasury  Department, 
which  is  one  of  the  largest,  having  a  total  of  604  tenders 
as  against  148  in  the  Navy,  we  find  that  below  $900  the 
percentage  is  18.57%,  and  above  $900  12.77%.  In  the 
Navy  Department,  on  the  other  hand,  with  its  much 


3 


smaller  number  of  tenders,  the  percentage  of  declinations 
below  $900  is  55.56%;  at  $900  and  over,  22.58%.  This 
apparent  preference  of  the  Treasury  Department  is  sig¬ 
nificant  and  should  be  borne  in  mind,  as  it  will  be  dealt 
with  later. 

In  comparing  the  Interior  and  Navy  Departments’ 
service  at  Washington,  we  find  again  that  although  the 
percentage  of  declinations  of  places  at  $900  and  over  is 
approximately  the  same  in  both  departments,  22.30%  in 
the  Interior  and  22.58%  in  the  Navy,  yet  in  the  places 
below  $900  the  percentage  in  the  Interior  Department  is 
but  33.15%,  as  against  55.56^  in  the  Navy.  There  would 
seem  to  be  some  reason,  therefore,  which  makes  against 
appointments  in  the  Navy  Department,  especially  to  the 
lower  grades.  The  distaste  felt  for  the  service  of  the 
Navy  Department  seems  to  be  shared  with  respect  to  the 
War  Department  as  well.  There,  however,  we  find  that 
the  percentage  of  declinations  in  two  places  of  $900  and 
over  is  slightly  more  (50.63%)  than  declinations  to  the 
grades  below,  namely,  48.21%.  The  deductions  to  be 
gathered  from  the  tables  of  all  departments,  however, 
indicate  that  this  is  the  result  of  certain  special  conditions 
and  does  not  show  a  preference  for  the  smaller  salary. 
In  both  instances  the  percentage  for  the  War  Department 
is  one  of  the  highest,  and  indicates  an  undoubted  reluc¬ 
tance  to  enter  that  service. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  detailed  comparison  between 
the  two  departments  selected  as  types,  the  Navy  and  the 
Interior. 

This  table  shows  the  selections  and  declinations  re¬ 
spectively  from  the  (1)  stenographer  and  typewriter,  (2) 
clerk,  and  (3)  bookkeeper  registers,  for  the  year  ending 
June  30,  1906.  These  selections  and  declinations  are 
broadly  divided  between  the  apportioned  service  and  the 
field  service,  and  are  reclassified  again  by  the  amount  of 
the  salary  paid  for  the  positions  sought  to  be  filled.  In¬ 
cluding  the  field  service  (in  addition  to  the  Departmental 
Service  dealt  with  in  the  first  table)  the  Interior  Depart¬ 
ment,  with  the  exception  of  the  War  Department,  received 


4 


the  next  largest  number  of  certifications  to  the  Navy 
Department.  As  it  differs  from  the  Navy  Department 
more  distinctly  in  the  conditions  of  its  service,  it  has  been 
taken  as  a  preferable  comparison. 

STENOGRAPHER  AND  TYPEWRITER  REGISTER. 

Taking  first  the  stenographer  and  typewriter  register, 
we  find  that  out  of  126  tenders  in  the  Interior  Department 
52,  or  two-fifths,  were  declined.  Out  of  323  tenders  in 
the  Navy  Department  179,  or  more  than  one-half,  were 
declined. 

CLERK  REGISTER. 

From  the  clerk  register,  out  of  19  tenders  in  the  In¬ 
terior  Department  10  were  declined.  In  the  Navy  De¬ 
partment,  out  of  200  tenders  120,  or  three-fifths,  were 
declined. 

BOOKKEEPER  REGISTER. 

Coming  next  to  the  bookkeeper  register,  it  appears 
that  out  of  12  tenders  in  the  Interior  Department  but  2 
were  declined,  while  out  of  47  tenders  in  the  Navy  De¬ 
partment  22,  or  46.81%  were  declined. 

The  total  number  of  tenders  made  from  the  three 
registers  during  this  period  were:  Interior,  157;  de¬ 
clined,  64,  or  40.07%;  Navy  Department,  570;  declined, 
321,  or  56.31%. 

Thus  we  find  the  general  conclusions  based  on  table 
No.  1,  confined  to  the  departmental  service,  supported 
as  well  by  table  No.  2,  embracing  the  field  service  also. 
Not  only  is  the  comparison  between  the  Interior  and  Navy 
Departments  generally  in  favor  of  the  former,  but  there 
is  no  class,  either  in  the  departmental  or  field  service, 
whether  stenographer  and  typewriter,  clerk,  or  the  book¬ 
keeper,  in  which  the  preference  is  reversed. 

In  most  grades  the  cases  are  hardly  sufficiently  numer¬ 
ous  to  show  the  direct  effect  of  the  relative  salary  offered. 
To  this,  however,  there  are  several  exceptions. 

In  the  $840  per  annum  class  of  the  apportioned  service 
the  Navy  Department  made  31  tenders,  of  which  14,  or 


5 


45-!6%,  were  declined.  In  the  class  immediately  above 
$9©o  the  Navy  Department  made  12  tenders,  of  which 
bnt  2,  or  15.39%,  were  declined. 

Taking  the  bookkeeper  class  we  find  that  the  per¬ 
centage  of  declinations  is  46.81%  in  the  Navy  Depart¬ 
ment,  as  against  16.67%  in  the  Interior  Department.  Is 
this  diversity  to  be  ascribed  to  the  relative  range  of  sal¬ 
ary?  In  the  first  place  it  should  be  noted,  as  possibly 
effecting  the  result,  that  the  total  number  of  certifications 
in  the  Interior  Department  was  but  12,  against  47  in  the- 
Navy  Department.  Out  of  those  in  the  Interior  Depart¬ 
ment  3  certifications  were  for  places  within  the  appor¬ 
tioned  service.  The  only  one  refused  was  an  appoint¬ 
ment  at  $480  per  year.  In  the  Navy  Department  none 
of. these  places  were  in  the  apportioned  service. 

Of  the  9  bookkeeper  places  in  the  field  service  of  the 
Interior  Department,  5  were  at  the  salary  of  $1,200  per 
annum  and  every  one  was  accepted ;  of  the  remaining  4, 
one  was  accepted  at  $720,  one  at  $939,  and  one  at  $1,020 
per  annum,  and  one  declined  at  $1,000  per  annum.  Com¬ 
paring  this  with  the  Navy  Department  we  find  that  out 
of  47  certifications,  all  for  the  field  service,  35  were  at  a 
salary  of  $2.48  per  diem,  or  equivalent  to  $776  per  year, 
and  of  these  nearly  16,  or  more  than  45%,  were  declined. 
The  inference,  however,  that  these  declinations  were  due 
largely  to  the  relatively  lower  salary  of  the  places  offered 
in  the  Navy  Department  would  seem  to  be  offset  to  a 
degree  by  the  fact  that  for  two  selections  of  bookkeeper 
at  $4  per  diem,  or  $1,252  per  year,  there  were  also  two 
declinations  at  the  same  salary,  but  when  the  whole  num¬ 
ber  of  places  is  considered  the  conclusion  is  irresistible 
that  the  relatively  high  percentage  of  declinations  in  the 
bookkeeper  service  of  the  Navy  Department  as  compared 
with  that  of  the  Interior  Department  (46.81%  against 
16.87%)  is  due  to  the  lower  range  of  salary. 

In  order  to  approach  the  subject  from  another  point 
of  view,  an  examination  was  made  of  the  reasons  for  100 
declinations  by  eligibles  on  the  stenographer  and  type¬ 
writer  register,  50  of  whom  have  since  been  appointed  to 


6 


other  positions  and  50  of  whom  are  still  eligible.  The 
following  results  were  obtained : 

23%  declined  because  of  unsatisfactory  lo¬ 
cation. 

16%  declined  because  of  sickness,  either  of 
the  eligible,  or  some  member  of  his 
family. 

15%  declined  on  account  of  business  ar¬ 
rangements  which  precluded  accept¬ 
ance. 

14%  because  of  miscellaneous  reasons, 
chiefly  because  Sunday  work  was  nec¬ 
essary  in  the  particular  service  in 
question,  or  because  of  inability  to  pay 
transportation. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  also  that  the  Civil  Service 
Commission  does  not  certify  an  eligible  for  a  position  at 
a  salary  which  he  has  indicated  he  would  not  accept,  or 
in  a  locality  which  is  not  satisfactory  to  him. 

When  a  declination  is  made  upon  either  of  these  ac¬ 
counts,  the  name  is  not  again  certified  until  salary  and 
location  limitations  are  fixed.  If  he  declines  because  of 
sickness,  business  arrangements  and  the  like,  his  name  is 
not  again  certified  until  a  statement  is  received  that  the 
obstacles  will  not  stand  in  the  way  of  the  next  tender. 

Notwithstanding  the  safeguards  of  this  character  the 
fact  remains  that  the  method  of  appointment  does  not 
operate  in  that  easy  automatic  way  which  the  framers  of 
the  system  would  seem  to  have  anticipated. 

In  the  first  place  it  is  plain  that  throughout  the  whole 
service  the  percentage  of  refusals  to  accept  appointment 
is  remarkably  high.  When  we  remember  that  certifica¬ 
tions  are  always  taken,  subject  to  apportionment,  from 
those  standing  highest  on  the  registers,  we  cannot  fail  to 
perceive  that  this  high  rate  of  declinations  inevitably 
tends  to  the  selection  of  an  inferior  personnel,  at  least  as 
gauged  by  an  examination  standard.  The  persons  certi¬ 
fied  as  having  received  the  highest  marks  decline,  one 
after  another,  until  somebody  is  at  length  reached  who 


7 


will  take  the  appointment.  The  result  of  the  increasing 
proportion  of  declinations  is  that  appointments  are  now 
largely  made  from  those  having  examination  grades  be¬ 
low  80%,  whereas  formerly  the  persons  appointed  were, 
for  the  most  part,  graded  above  that  figure.  This  tend¬ 
ency  is  doubtless  offset  to  some  degree  by  holding  fre¬ 
quent  examinations,  by  which  new  material  of  the  higher 
grade  is  frequently  added  to  the  registers  depleted 
through  appointments  or  declinations.  But  the  process 
of  declination  commences  again  with  the  new  registers 
and  moves  steadily  on. 

Another  obvious  consequence  of  the  high  rate  of 
declinations  is  the  crippling  of  the  service  resulting  from 
the  time  and  effort  lost  in  making  appointments  in  face 
of  successive  refusals  to  accept.  Even  in  case  of  accept¬ 
ance  by  the  first  eligible,  there  is  always  an  interval  of 
time  consumed  in  correspondence,  for  under  the  system 
of  apportionment  the  person  first  certified  as  having  the 
highest  mark  may  probably  reside  3,000  miles  from  the 
place  of  appointment. 

In  such  a  case  as  this  a  temporary  appointment  must 
generally  be  made.  But  when  the  delay  is  stretched  over 
a  period  sufficient  to  enable  correspondence  to  be  com¬ 
menced  with  a  number  of  persons  who  successively  de¬ 
cline,  a  temporary  appointment  becomes  an  absolute  neces¬ 
sity,  and  if  we  again  multiply  the  delay  by  the  number  of 
places  to  be  filled  in  the  course  of  a  year  in  a  large  de¬ 
partment,  we  discover  an  obvious  opportunity  for  the 
creation  of  what  might  be  called  a  “permanent”  tempo¬ 
rary  roll,  the  temporary  employee  passing,  with  a  few 
days’  intermission,  from  one  vacant  desk  to  another. 

Another  evil  resulting  from  the  present  system  is  the 
inequality  between  the  various  departments.  Distaste  for 
the  service  of  one  department  rather  than  another  must 
inevitably  work  out  in  one  or  two  ways :  Either  the  class 
of  employees  obtained  by  a  department  so  discriminated 
against  must  be  inferior  in  grade  or  the  department  must 
be  content  to  retain  its  employees  only  for  a  limited 
period.  Either  case  makes  against  the  efficiency. 


* 


8 


The  best  men  either  will  not  accept  the  low  salary  at 
which  entrance  into  the  service  is  had,  or,  having  once 
entered  and  finding  little  chance  of  increase,  pass  out 
steadily  to  more  remunerative  fields  of  appointment.  To 
such  an  extent  is  this  true  that  a  head  of  one  of  the 
bureaus  of  a  great  department,  having  an  extensive  field 
service,  has  complained  that  the  material  sent  him  by  the 
Civil  Service  Commission  was  too  good.  His  bureau 
was  constantly  badgered  by  requests  from  officers  in  the 
field  for  increases  for  this  man  or  that,  because  he  could 
not  otherwise  be  kept.  It  seemed  to  this  official  that  the 
administration  would  be  assisted  rather  by  a  permanent 
force  of  mediocre  quality  than  by  a  changing,  shifting 
one  of  superior  quality. 

Your  committee  has  not  been  able  to  escape  the  con¬ 
viction  that  the  discrimination  shown  against  certain  de¬ 
partments  by  the  high  percentage  of  declinations  is  the 
result  of  two  factors  which  are  themselves  but  different 
aspects  of  the  same  administrative  policy,  namely,  no 
pay  in  the  entrance  grade  and  but  little  prospect  of  ad¬ 
vancement. 

If  your  committee  are  asked  to  lay  bare  the  causes  of 
this  falling  off  in  the  service  and  suggest  appropriate 
remedies,  they  must  confess  themselves  somewhat  at  a 
loss.  The  subject  is  complicated  by  a  great  many  admin¬ 
istrative  details.  The  character  of  work  done  bv  various 

m/ 

departments  is  infinitely  various  and  requires  capacities 
of  many  sorts.  It  is  also  performed  under  conditions  of 
dissimilarity  as  to  locality  and  the  like. 

Even  in  the  same  grade  of  salary,  we  find  in  one 
department  that  the  clerk  must  be  familiar  with  numerous 
laws  and  regulations,  orders  and  decisions,  able  to  weigh 
evidence,  and  determine  questions  of  law  and  fact,  or 
perhaps  to  state  accounts  from  original  data  and  compile 
statements  and  details  of  official  actions  and  the. reasons 
therefor,  while  in  another  bureau  of  the  same  department 
a  clerk  at  the  same  salary  will  be  doing  work  requiring 
little  more  than  ordinary  clerical  capacity  and  habits. 

Certain  broad  facts,  however,  disentangle  themselves 


9 


from  the  confusion  of  the  subject.  These  facts  in  the 
opinion  of  your  committee  indicate  certain  remedies,  some 
of  which  are  limited  in  their  scope  and  hardly  require 
legislative  action ;  others  go  to  the  root  of  the  whole 
system  of  classification  and  promotion. 

Before  touching  upon  the  broader  and  more  thorough¬ 
going  remedies,  your  committee  wish  to  make  minor 
suggestions  which  would  eliminate  some  of  the  difficul¬ 
ties  to  which  attention  has  been  drawn. 

We  have  observed,  for  example,  that  there  is  an  ex¬ 
tremely  high  percentage  of  declinations  in  the  field  ser¬ 
vice  of  the  Navy  Department.  There  can  be  little  doubt 
that  one  of  the  causes  of  this  disproportionate  rate  is 
the  circumstance  that  under  the  nomenclature  employed 
by  that  department  the  incumbents  of  field  clerical  posi¬ 
tions  are  designated  as  “special  laborers”  and  the  com¬ 
pensation  is  on  a  per  diem  basis.  It  is  the  practice  of  the 
Department  to  make  the  tender  of  appointment  by  tele¬ 
gram,  asking  the  eligible  if  he  is  willing  to  accept  so 
much  per  diem  as  a  special  laborer  in  a  designated  navy 
yard  or  station.  The  eligible  is  exceedingly  likely  to 
infer  that  the  words  mean  what  they  say  and  that  he  who 
has  passed  the  examination  as  a  clerk,  bookkeeper,  or 
stenographer  as  the  case  may  be,  is  to  be  employed  as  a 
laborer  and  that  the  tenure  of  his  office,  like  his  pay,  is 
per  diem.  Correspondence  in  the  files  of  the  civil  service 
will  show  that  in  many  cases  this  misapprehension  has 
brought  about  a  declination. 

It  would  seem  to  your  committee  that  no  time  should 
be  lost  in  altering  both  the  designation  and  the  basis  of 
pay,  or  at  least  provision  should  be  made  for  informing 
the  eligible  of  the  true  nature  of  the  place  tendered  him 
and  the  probable  duration  of  his  appointment  if  not  the 
prospects  of  advancement  in  the  service. 

This  element  of  the  prospect  of  advancement  in  the 
service  is  one  of  great  weight.  Although  the  entrance 
salaries  in  the  Treasury  Department  are  no  higher  than 
those  in  other  branches  of  the  civil  service,  the  salary 
average  in  the  department  proper  in  Washington  is 


higher  than  any  other.  That  department  is  to  be  credited 
with  many  examples  of  clerks  who  have  risen  to  a  high 
place  in  its  service,  and  there  is  doubtless  a  belief  that 
its  work  fits  a  man  for  good  paying  positions  in  the  busi¬ 
ness  world.  These  impressions  are  doubtless  reflected 
in  the  extremely  low  percentage  of  declinations  of  that 
department,  which  we  have  seen  to  be  but  17.22%,  against 
49.65%,  for  instance,  in  the  War  Department,  and  48.65% 
in  the  Navy. 

Whether  the  whole  scale  of  wages  in  the  civil  service 
shotild  be  raised  is  a  question  of  such  importance  and  de¬ 
pends  upon  so  many  considerations  of  a  political,  social, 
and  economic  character,  that  your  committee  hardly  feels 
at  liberty  to  express  an  opinion.  But  whether  the  general 
level  of  salaries  should  be  raised  or  not  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  scheme  of  classification  of  salaries  re¬ 
quired  a  new  adjustment. 

It  is  but  a  truism  to  say  that  the  same  work  rendered 
under  the  same  circumstances  should  always  receive  the 
same  compensation.  But  whether,  under  any  system, 
this  ideal  state  of  things  can  be  brought  about  may  be 
doubted.  He  would  be  a  bold  man  who  would  undertake 
to  devise  an  accurately  weighted  scale  for  the  infinitely 
various  duties  of  the  whole  classified  service.  One  thing 
at  least,  however,  could  be  done  and  that  is  that  the  en¬ 
trance  grade  to  the  departmental  service  011  the  one  hand, 
or  the  field  service  on  the  other,  should  be  uniform  for 
all  departments.  A  glance  at  Table  No.  2,  will  show 
this  is  far  from  being  the  case  at  the  present  time.  Start¬ 
ing  with  this  initial  grade  your  committee,  if  it  were 
given  a  free  hand  to  reconstruct  the  confessedly  anti¬ 
quated  system  of  classification  in  the  civil  service,  would 
also  seek  to  arrange  to  advance  from  grade  to  grade, 
upon  a  basis  which  would  bring  more  frequent  promo¬ 
tions.  Even  if  the  present  scale  of  salaries  were  retained 
and  the  classified  service  extended  no  higher  than  it  ex¬ 
tends  to-day,  this  frequency  of  promotion  could  be  accom¬ 
plished  by  changing  the  number  of  classes  of  clerks  i-rom 
four  to  seven,  with  a  difference  in  salary  of  $100  between 


each  class  instead  of  $200  as  at  present.  One  of  the  ob¬ 
vious  results  of  the  greater  number  of  grades  would  be 
the  easy  and  more  feasible  adjustment  of  salary  to  the 
value  and  character  of  the  work  done. 

The  moral  effect  of  promotion  is  by  no  means  de¬ 
pendent  upon  a  large  salary-increment.  A  small  increase 
which  can  be  reasonably  expected  within  a  comparatively 
short  time  is  far  more  stimulating  than  a  large  increase 
which  seems  to  be  indefinitely  postponed.  This  sugges¬ 
tion  has  the  value  of  being  practicable  without  any  real 
increase  in  the  cost  of  the  service. 

Your  committee,  however,  if  they  still  had  the  im¬ 
aginary  free  hand  as  to  the  reconstruction  of  the  service, 
would  extend  the  classified  grades,  properly  so-called, 
beyond  their  present  upward  limit.  The  sense  of  “la 
carriere  ouverte”  which  would  be  given  by  the  existence 
of  a  few  places  of  say,  $3000  or  $4000  at  the  end  of  the 
line,  would  be  purchased  very  cheaply  by  the  slight  in¬ 
crease  of  cost  necessary  to  provide  for  them.  We  believe 
that  while  such  rewards  for  faithful  and  continuous 
service  would  be  enjoyed  by  comparatively  few,  the 
chance  of  attaining  them  would  be  an  incentive  to  many 
to  make  the  civil  service  a  permanent  career.  In  the 
midst  of  our  present  era  of  prosperity,  it  is  idle  to  hope 
that  a  great  deal  of  the  best  material  will  not  be  drawn 
off  by  opportunities  in  the  business  world.  It  is  never¬ 
theless  certain  that  publicly  speaking  that  healthful  tend¬ 
ency  may  be  offset  for  administrative  purposes  in  some 
measure,  (and  in  our  opinion  it  can  only  be  offset)  by  a 
system  of  classification  and  promotion,  which  will  take 
the  deadness  out  of  the  service  by  offering  to  the  imag¬ 
ination  at  least  a  parallel  career. 

Without  some  fundamental  changes  like  these  sug¬ 
gested,  your  committee  can  see  no  effective  means  of 
checking  the  increasing  tendency  to  decline  appointments 
in  the  civil  service.  Undoubtedly  a  season  of  hard 
times  would,  for  a  while,  reverse  the  current,  but  that  is 
a  remedy  which  we  neither  can  nor  dare  anticipate,  and 
unless  the  times  remained  permanently  hard  the  effect 
would  after  all  be  but  temporary. 


Aside  from  the  fundamental  reclassification  and  minor 
administrative  and  legislative  changes  already  noted,  we 
see  nothing  that  is  not  inherent  in  the  nature  of  the  civil 
service  and  the  fixed  conditions  governing  appointments. 
In  other  words,  we  see  no  way  in  which  the  delays  and 
difficulties  and  temptations  incident  to  the  present  system 
of  selection  can  be  obviated,  except  by  actually  stimu¬ 
lating  the  willingness  to  accept.  Take,  for  instance,  the 
possible  abuse  of  the  temporary  roll.  Even  in  that  happy 
time  when  the  first  person  tendered  a  place  in  the  civil 
service  will  immediately  accept  by  wire,  there  will  still 
be  an  interval  of  time  between  the  request  and  appoint¬ 
ment,  and  that  interval  must,  in  many  cases,  be  filled  by 
a  temporary  employee.  We  have  thought  of  the  possi¬ 
bility  of  doing  away  with  the  rule  of  apportionment  in 
all  places  below  a  certain  grade,  or  possibly  only  in  the 
field  service  below  a  certain  grade.  We  find,  however, 
as  a  practical  question,  that  to  throw  away  the  question 
of  apportionment  in  the  lower  grades  of  service  would 
mean  that  certain  sections  of  the  country  would  cease  to 
be  represented  in  that  service  at  all.  For  reasons  which 
it  is  beyond  the  scope  of  this  paper  to  touch  upon,  the 
certification  of  the  eligibles  from  an  entire  section  of  our 
country  is  practically  confined  to  the  lower  grades. 

Your  committee  cannot  close  without  expressing  its 
sense  of  indebtedness  to  the  Secretary  in  the  office  of  the 
Civil  Service  Commission,  through  whose  courtesy  they 
have  obtained  the  information  upon  which  this  report  is 
based,  and  by  whose  views  and  suggestions  they  have 
endeavored,  as  far  as  in  them  lay,  to  profit  in  this  in¬ 
cursion  into  an  unfamiliar  field. 

Respectfully  submitted, 

Henry  Haywood  Glassie, 

Charles  C.  Binney, 

Clinton  Rogers  Woodruff,  Chairman. 

Committee. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBAN  A 
351.60973  N213WC001 
Withdrawals  from  the  civil  service  :  rep 


